Several WayForward Prototypes Appear Online Following Data Leak

Hrmm, I wonder if the Sourcecode would mean some random ports of their games to unexpected platforms...

There's a cool looking prototype for a 3D Shantae game on the DS included in the leak:
https://hiddenpalace.org/Shantae_(Jan_5,_2007_prototype)

McDonald notes that the person apparently in possession of the WayForward data has said they will not be leaking anything on the upcoming GBA / Switch Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, which is currently slated to release later this year.

Bet if it were Nintendo, or any other company, they would leak it without hesitation.

@Bobb From the gameplay footage uploaded, it looks like it's just a 2.5D platformer game and not a true 3D game.

@HammerGalladeBro Wayforward is an indie, and they don't need to get hurt.

Nintendo is a multi billion dollar corp, and and would be fine.

I would love to see the duck tales remastered game on switch. It was some of their best work.

@LadyCharlie I can assure you that the people behind Wayforward and many indie devs like Celeste and Stardew Valley developers are much bigger than all the industry companies combined.

@Ruthchild not sure where you’re getting that from but… no that’s not true at all.

@LadyCharlie I feel you will get burnt in life thinking that all the little companies are just great people and are completely fair to customers and the planet. And I also think you'll find that there are lots of them that are wannabe big time CEO's who haven't got there yet.
Small companies just have an easier opportunity at making themselves look better.

This feels like the least offensive controversy regarding companies and data protection, since the leaker doesn't seem malicious (and in some ways motivated by preservation), even if what he's doing could be seen as illegal.

I wonder if there’s anything about Pictionary Universe, a cancelled Wii U game that was reportedly worked on from them

@Ogbert Very very true

Welp their SOC2 audit is gonna suck. Thieves will steal anything.

@dew12333 whilst it’s true that in any given workplace there will always be a bunch of rotten eggs, and it’s also true that they can usually found nearer the top (rotten eggs float), it doesn’t mean that everyone else is nefarious and bad.

Indie studios are generally smaller studios, yeah it gets muddy with some studios but on the whole they’re not as big. They don’t tend to have as many people or as much funds in the bank.

Someone like Nintendo getting hit with this kind of leak. It’s not going to hurt them. They have lawyers on retainer they will unleash, they have money to cover any damages. Somewhere like Wayforward doesn’t have that to the same degree. So if they get hit hard by this they can’t necessarily just stand solid and take it like an Ubisoft or EA.

This sort of thing could cost them big time, there are many IPs there who the owners of could choose to take legal action against them. Or if not that they could pull any current or future projects. A studio like Wayforward will generally take on those contracts to keep the cash flow rather than as a passion. Loosing them could cost them dearly. The company loosing money could mean job cuts. Any bad eggs at the top will not be loosing their job, it’ll be the folk making the games.

At the end of the day this is a mid-large sized indie studio that could suffer quite badly from this. More people could loose jobs. It’s nothing to defend or get all devils advocate over. It doesn’t matter the the CEO is vying for global domination they won’t suffer here.

@dew12333 Ok 👍🏽

@Ogbert I agree with you and never stated that this is an all people thing.

But I do feel that we all dog on the big companies and CEO's but if you gave the opportunity to all people in society then a far too big percentage would take them up on it and act in exactly the same way.

"Shantae and the Hidden Palace" would make for a good new Switch game... 😂

@dew12333 ok but I’ll be frank I’m not going to excuse the people that are doing the bad thing just because of a negative assumption that other people would also do it given the chance.

A - that’s a huge assumption of other people and that is not fair and may or may not even be accurate.
B - it’s irrelevant that someone else might be awful if they have the chance, because that is a hypothetical. The fact is someone is being awful, and that person deserves all the consequences of their actions.

I blame LRG as a bad influence for not maintaining proper data disposal standards.

Just want to point out how fitting it is that a game called "Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!" was leaked by someone stealing WayForward's garbage.

For the record, wayforward isn't an indie company.

@Raifteiri They’re a privately owned, independent developer/publisher. Definition of indie. Whether they make games for big publishers using famous IPs is irrelevant

A hard drive isn't fully discarded until it goes to the gun range and gets blasted by Barry Burton's .357 Magnum Colt Python.

@larryisaman by that logic Capcom is a indie.

@Raifteiri Capcom is a publicly traded company so no.

Reminds me, please release Ducktales for Switch

Tragic how some of us here rightfully feel that smaller indie developers, with employees trying to earn a living both for themselves and perhaps their families, should be protected from harm, but also feel that larger corporations, with a lot more employees trying to earn a living for the same reasons, are fine to harm.

You wouldn't want to be friends with these people if you make it big in this world.